As part of my role as team statistician for the Sudbury Wolves, my job description includes the preparation of weekly media notes, featuring various tidbits of information regarding upcoming games.

While these notes have generally been confined to circulating among media types and club officials, it seemed likely that fans of the local OHL team might also have an interest in the odds and ends that I might come across on a weekly basis.

With just four victories to show for their 19 outings to date, the Sudbury Wolves are hopeful that the return of head coach Scott Barney, fresh off a very impressive appearance at the 2025 U-17 World Hockey Challenge in Truro, Nova Scotia brings with it a return to the winning ways.

Currently in his second year with the Wolves, Barney needs just four more wins on the bench to crack the team’s top ten in terms of all-time coaching victories, surpassing Paul Fixter (#10). With just two games on the docket this weekend, he won’t get there by next Monday – but it would be nice if he was a little bit closer to that next rung on the ladder by then.

Those on the “cup half full” side of the equation will not that despite the Wolves current six game losing skid, the fact remains that one of their victories to date came opposite their adversaries on Friday, the Erie Otters. In fact, with that 6-3 road triumph back in early October in Pennsylvania, the Woofers have put themselves in position to register their third season sweep of the Otters in the past six years.

Prior to the 2018-2019 season, Sudbury had just one winter where they could point to a winning record versus Erie (in fairness, the teams have split the two game set no less than 14 times since this series began in 1996-1997), that being back in 2012-2013. The Wolves followed up a close 2-1 victory at home that year with a 7-2 thumping of the Otters in Erie as Ray Huether broke out with a career night, netting a goal and three assists.

Michael Kantor added a pair of goals, with others coming from Nicholas Baptiste, Brody Silk, Nathan Pancel and Matthew Campagna. Oh yes ... some kid named Connor McDavid got one of the two goals that night in a losing cause – but we still thought he might have some potential!

On Saturday night, the Wolves will entertain the Saginaw Spirit at home, marking the 22nd meeting of the teams in northern Ontario since 2002-2003. While players are likely unaware of the numbers, the team, as a whole, would certainly like to climb above the .500 mark in these games, all-time, currently boasting a home record of 9-9-0-0-3 against the Spirit.

Things started well enough for the local juniors, taking the first three matchups in Sudbury (2002 – 2005), a run that was sparked by a 3-1 victory on December 13th (2002). A scoreless encounter into the second period of play would see the Wolves jump out to a 2-0 lead on tallies from Sean Grendus and Bobby Chaumont, before Grendus and Geoff Platt traded goals in the third as Joel Whitmarsh picked up the win between the pipes.

(side note: it looks like I may have some off-season work to do on this file. The all-time records that were passed along my way clearly show the beginning of this series as 2002-2003 – yet the Saginaw Spirit were actually moved State-side after owner Dick Gerber purchased the North Bay Centennials. Given that standard practice with historical records is that typically a series follows a franchise, even if said franchise makes multiple moves, these records (I think) should go all the way back to the St Catharines Black Hawks, who first would have played the Wolves in 1972-1973. St Catharines moved to Niagara Falls in 1976 and then to North Bay in 1982)